


I Take It Back

by 2c31h42n2o6



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Asexual Character, M/M, basically martin has a very bad day, even the archives have to deal with Karens, jonmartin, they're both sweet and awkward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:49:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23945713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2c31h42n2o6/pseuds/2c31h42n2o6
Summary: Martin's day had already been bad enough before the woman decided to give her statement.  Thank goodness for Jon.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 5
Kudos: 211





	I Take It Back

To say the recent statement giver was any different wasn't exactly right. Martin had dealt with the anxious or the suspicious or even the downright flighty people who had barely worked up the courage to come into the Institute and sit down with a pen. There were some who didn't seem at all bothered, others who looked as though they were in a trance. After giving statements a few even shouted at them, asking them to believe them and shouting at them when they didn't know any more than they did. Martin liked those incidents the least.

So when the woman came in looking as stern as ever and asked to make a statement he had of course set her up with a pen, some paper, and one of the conference rooms for her to write everything down, privately. He had offered to get her tea, or a coffee but she had declined and looked at him with an expression of disdain. He didn't know what her deal was but Martin was already having a shite day after missing his tube this morning and finding Elias waiting for him at the door to go over some budgetary records he'd placed. Not to mention he'd chipped a mug in the break room earlier and overall just wanted to get the day over with as soon as possible.

So when he went to collect the statement and asked the woman if there was anything else, it would be fair to say he was unprepared for the onslaught the woman had to say. She asked him what sort of Institute had this terrible of a system, that for all it did they seemed to have no answers for her problem. She called him incompetent and altogether useless. For the life of him Martin couldn't remember her name and the more she talked the more he could feel others walking past the conference room go quiet. It was a special sort of hell having to stand there and listen to her. She was saying things downright vitriolic before someone opened the door and they both turned to look.

"Ah, Martin, Tim told me I'd find you here - I was just looking at a case and wondered if you had," Jon paused as he looked up from his file to find a red in the face woman and most likely a on the verge of tears Martin and stopped in his tracks. His voice changed from inquiring to something closer to sympathetic when he asked, "Is everything alright?"

The woman, who had been standing in stunned silence saw the opportunity and lunged, asking who Jon was and if he was more competent than whatever shitty researcher she'd been given. At the words Jon's eyes widened almost comically before his face snapped shut in a way Martin hadn't seen before. The woman continued to berate Martin in front of Jon and he seemed to be waiting, quietly for her to finish. Martin thought he'd die on the spot. The words weren't any different than anything else he'd heard in the last couple years, working with a fake CV usually meant he came across bad at his job but it had already been a long day and he didn't appreciate having to stand in front of his boss while listening to it.

When the woman finally ran out of shit to shovel, she stared at Jon, almost triumphantly. It was like she was asking for him to be fired right in front of her. Martin's face was probably about as red as hers in embarrassment instead of anger, but Jon didn't even seem to glance in his direction. 

"I am going to have to ask you to leave," was all he said to her, quietly but without brokering any argument. Martin glanced at him to see him holding the file close to his chest and his entire face was closed off.

The woman, who had obviously been hoping for a different reaction, probably used to others taking the side of the ah, well in this case she wasn't exactly a customer but well, taking her side looked surprised. She opened her mouth, presumably to berate Jon as well but he interrupted her.

"If you continue to berate my coworker here I will be forced to call security. I can assure you he has been nothing but patient with you but it's time for you to go," he told her coldly and turned to Martin. "Come on Martin, let's go." 

And suddenly he was being gently but quickly led out of the room and away from the woman, who stood in a bit of a daze and was rapidly left behind. Jon's hand was firmly wrapped around Martin's forearm and he didn't even glance back as he led him away. When they reached the break room Jon let go of his arm and pressed him into one of the wooden padded chairs. 

"Jon I, um, thank you. Sorry that was ah, a lot. She was quite loud, wasn't she? Not exactly wrong I supposed - I couldn't help her with her -" Martin stopped as his rambling was interrupted by Jon, who seemed a lot less worked up about the whole thing.

"Martin, stop. It's alright." Jon looked at him intensely and seemed to consider the state he was in. "Are you alright?" he asked carefully, as though he wasn't sure what to do with the words.

"I um, yes. It's just ah, been a bit of a long day I suppose," he admitted, taking in a breath and feeling less awful.

Jon's face was still sort of blank, as though he was lost and Martin hadn't really ever heard him say much in the way of feelings or emotions but he seemed to press on enough to ask, "Do you, ah. Do you want to talk about it?"

Martin laughed weakly and shook his head. Jon's face lost a little of it's deer in the headlights look when Martin gave him a small but weary smile. "No, that's okay. Just um. Thank you, really. She was rather unpleasant."

Jon seemed to relax a little as Martin worked towards regaining his composure. The tension in his shoulders and face loosened and he leaned back in his chair. 

"It was uncalled for is what it was," Jon told him matter of factly. Martin huffed out a laugh.

"Well, I am the assistant with the least experience here. Not surprising someone else finally noticed," he joked lightly, hoping to undo some of the awkwardness of the whole situation.

Jon, however, looked rather stricken at the joke and rubbed the sleeve of his shirt between his fingers. 

"I haven't always been the, well. I've been, admittedly, paranoid these last few weeks and probably rather a bit of a prick but I hope you know that," Jon huffed like he couldn't think of the right words and paused a moment. "Those first few weeks, yes. It took you a bit to learn the system given you weren't exactly familiar with what we were doing but. You picked up quite fast really what people spend years getting a degree in." He must have been looking at Jon a little too openly because he could have sworn he saw him blush as he said, "You're not incompetent or useless or anything else that woman said. I'm sorry if I ever - well. I'm sure you've heard my earlier statement recordings. So. I thought you should know that ah, well. I'm eating my words, Martin."

Sitting there, in the break room, looking slightly alarmed but also mostly touched, was Martin Blackwood. Across from him was Jonathan Sims, who apparently was capable of saying more than ten words on a subject that wasn't emulsifiers or phlogiston theory. If Martin could have predicted how his day would go he would have eaten a tape recorder before thinking Jon would ever apologize for what, underestimating an assistant who lied on his CV? 

Jon, for his part, was looking at him pretty intently and Martin realized he should probably say something and not just let his brain continue to stall.

"Thank you, Jon. That's kind of you to say." If at all possible, Jon appeared to flush even darker but Martin pressed on. "Not that I'm objecting or anything but you know, what brought this on?"

It was a few minutes before Jon responded properly. He seemed to have a couple false starts and just some general frustration at not being able to get the words out properly. Martin can't say he minded, it was rather adorable to watch him search for whatever words he was looking for. Not that he'd admit that out loud. Finally Jon seemed to come to a conclusion.

"When I walked in and that woman started yelling, I was angry. Not just at her behavior, although that was uncalled for also, but because everything she was saying just wasn't true." Jon switched from fidgeting with his sleeve to running his hand through his hair, twisting up his greying strands with his darker ones. "You're good at your job, Martin. But the worst was that the more she talked the more I realized that months ago, I'm sure I had said very similar things into tape recordings that I have no doubt you either listened to or were told of. And yes I was a prick but standing there listening to that asshole yell at you made me realize how much I regretted saying any of that about you. How unfair it was. So I'm sorry. For that. I'm really not a good boss, am I?" Jon gave him a deprecating smile and Martin shook his head.

"Aside from the occasional jab in a tape or two Jon, you never said any of that to my face. I mean, you treated me like Tim and Sasha, and while it was pretty obvious Sasha's your favorite, you weren't going out of you way to be rude."

It was at that moment that Tim and Sasha decided to take a coffee break and both Jon and Martin startled when they opened the door. Tim smiled widely at their wide eyed looks and Sasha stopped what she had been saying to Tim, obviously noticing the weird tone change.

"We interrupting anything?" he asked cheerily, very much hoping he was interrupting something.

"Not at all. I believe Martin and I were finished here," Jon glanced at Martin and while his shoulders were set back to look professional his face was much softer and had a small smile. It made Martin's heart ache.

"Yes, yes. Did you want to get back to whatever you'd been looking for, from before?" Martin asked, gesturing at the file Jon had seemingly forgotten about.

"Ah yes, I was hoping you could help me find a file about -" Jon rambled as they both left the break room and went about the rest of the day as though Jon hadn't essentially had a second heart to heart with Martin on a Tuesday.

 _Ah well_ , Martin thought to himself, at least now Jon was a little less distant and a little more willing to simply talk to him. And he was even willing to forgive the awkwardness since Jon had been nothing but sincere. As he watched him reach for a case file above his head Martin smiled to himself and couldn't find it in himself to regret having taken this weird and sometimes unsettling job so long as he had Jon there with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure whether I should add on to this and make it a longer fic but like, I liked the idea of Jon standing up (sort of) to a Karen for Martin. I'm tempted to make this longer - let me know if I should because I'm on the fence. Feel free to push me off.
> 
> I also ignored Not!Sasha because goddammit I want them all to be happy. 
> 
> Oh, and phlogiston theory was the working theory about what fire was and how it worked. It kinda supposed there was an element contained within things that made objects flammable or not. I'm sure Agnes is 100% pure phlogiston.


End file.
